Saturday, December 2, 2023

1 Dec 2023 Istanbul: More Strolling in the Old City

 


We found the busy market area.  Can you believe that a car and several motorcycles were able to drive up the street above?  We were barely able to get through ourselves.  We walked up a block and the took a turn on a street with only half the number of folks on it.  But this street had four times the vehicles so it was not much easier to navigate.  Leslie was on the hunt for some better hair color, more blonde less blue, so we headed further afield to get the store that had hair color.  We found it and it was reasonably prices to boot.  This took us further to the north than we had been before and we could feel the wind blowing off the water.  We had a half hour walk back along the T1 tram line.  We took a slight detour through a park and then through the Hippodrome square.   We wanted some tonic water and Google took us up and down some hills that perhaps we did not need to conquer.    


The newest fashions were on display


The actual blue mosque


Our AirBnB told us that our place overlooked the Blue Mosque.  That is not true it overlooks the Sokollu Mehmet Pasha Mosque...grrr


Our first sighting of the Asia side of Istanbul


A mishmash of styles


This is a patriotic song


A whole bunch of schoolkids were filing into this museum


Hot tea anyone?


3000 mosques in this city


The local ice cream is made with a orchid root extract


It is chewy


We got the combo cone


There are fountains out in front of all the mosques.  It is there for folks to wash before going in to pray.


Dervish tile!


So many cool tiles


Bubble wrap comfort


Tower of Baklava


What is behind this odd gate?


A cemetery


Beautiful calligraphy


Tiny but cool nonetheless


Sassy women wearing berets can urinate here


Rat Pack bathroom


Iootanbul???


I see, the "S" is tired and is taking a nap


Rose Ringed Parakeet


The parakeet likes this tree


Seriously nice plumage


Who is that on the bridge?  Why it is my sweetie!


Very midievil look


The gates to the park


Another mosque's fountain 


Traditional flat bread freshly made


Yes another fountain.  It is more than just a fountain, it was a way to provide water to the population before the advent of indoor plumbing


The Hagia Sophia Mosque


So many fountains


The Blue Mosque


Please follow these rules


An Obelisk that the Sultan found in his pocket when he came back from Egypt, "Oops I'll just have to keep it" he said.


This pillar used to be covered in bronze plates


A small row of houses that seem out of place


A very run down fortification


An all tile exterior


A fine hotel


More nice hotels on our hike back up to the AirBnB


Sun going down


Another great sunset place


So many ships


Lots of birds to share our sunset




It has been 1 year and 179 days since we began our Migration